Bowling Green City Commission holds homelessness meeting
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Bowling Green City Commission held a meeting Thursday night about homelessness and spoke with over a dozen local nonprofits about how they could work together to make an impact on the homeless community in the area.
Homelessness was defined in Thursday night’s meeting as someone who does not have an affordable place to stay overnight. The meeting specifically mentioned those who may be couch surfing, struggling to pay rent or those living on the streets or in a homeless shelter. There were several non-profits in attendance at the meeting and had questions they hope the city will provide answers to. Most of the questions focused on affordable housing.
Melanie Watts with Life Skills attended the meeting and asked the city to purchase land to have a large community center for all kinds of services to come together.
Most of the non-profits in attendance spent a portion of their four minutes to speak acknowledging that the non-profits get along and help people, but could do it better if they had a way to work together a little closer.
Also in attendance was Bowling Green Police Chief Michael Delaney. He said the department spends an average of 400 officer hours per month on mental health calls and says that is a huge issue with police resources being used for something they cannot really help.
Delaney hopes to see those suffering from mental health issues and experiencing homelessness not be passed around from police to Life Skills or jail and back out on the streets in a large cycle, but instead wants to see a way to get these people the help they truly need.
Another issue mentioned included panhandling. One non-profit spokesperson said most homeless folks do not panhandle.
According to the spokeswoman’s research, there are the same 10 to 15 people panhandling often in the area and only about four are actually homeless and of those four, they all have refused services.
Bowling Green Mayor Alcott said the next step is for the commissioners to take the information they learned Thursday evening home with them and come up with a plan.
